British troops are needed in Afghanistan for another 15 years, president Hamid
Karzai said as scores of foreign envoys attended a conference in London on
the country’s future.

The so-called '$10 Taliban' are said to fight for a day rate because they need money and have 'nothing else to do'Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Ben Farmer, Afghanistan Correspondent

9:10AM GMT 28 Jan 2010

Speaking ahead of the London conference, Mr Karzai explained that enough police and soldiers could be trained and equipped within five to 10 years, but ''sustaining'' them would take longer.

Gordon Brown told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the number of troops and police officers would rise to 300,000 by 2011, and the number of British troops in the country could be gradually reduced.

But Mr Karzai said: ''With regard to training and equipping the Afghan security forces, five to 10 years would be sufficient. With regard to sustaining them... the time period extends to 10 to 15 years.''

Gordon Brown has refused to give a timetable for withdrawal, but the conference is expected aim for a province-by-province handover to the Afghans over the next five years.

Mr Karzai will also launch an ambitious peace plan to give hundreds of millions of pounds worth of jobs, land and training to Taliban fighters who lay down their arms.

The conference will unveil a reintegration fund of up to £600m from Britain, Japan and America which officials hope could be used to coax up to 12,500 fighters to defect.

Representatives from more than 70 countries, and international organisations will attend the meeting in Lancaster House.

Mr Karzai said: “We will be trying our very best to be ready to defend the major part of our country from two to three years — and when we reach the five-year end point, that's when we would be leading.”

The most secure provinces could be handed over later this year.

Britain has lost 251 troops in the country since operations began in October 2001 and violence in British-garrisoned Helmand province escalated sharply last year.

Mr Karzai said: “To weaken the Taliban you divide them and offer those people who are prepared to renounce violence and join the democratic process a way out.”

The Afghan president may also use his speech to reach out to the Taliban leadership in an attempt to usher in eventual peace talks or power-sharing.

A Taliban statement has denounced the conference as a “waste of time” designed to justify the continued foreign occupation of Afghanistan.

The United Nations appointed a new envoy for its troubled Afghan mission on the eve of the conference.

Staffan de Mistura, the former UN representative in Iraq and a veteran Swedish diplomat will succeed Kai Eide of Norway on March 1.

The UN was forced to withdraw hundreds of international staff and scale back efforts after Taliban fighters stormed a guest house and killed six workers in October.

The mission was also split by vicious dispute over last year’s Afghan presidential elections, with Mr Eide publicly accused by his own deputy of being complicit in fraud and biased toward Mr Karzai.

Mr Brown would not be drawn on a timetable, and said instead that British withdrawal depended on conditions in the country.

He said: ''I'm not giving a timescale; what I'm saying is, if the conditions are met, that security can be taken over by the Afghans in the provinces in which we operate, then British forces will not be needed at the level they are at the moment.''